What Sweetgreen’s co-founder stocks in his fridge to avoid salad fatigue

Walk into any Sweetgreen and you’ll see a dazzling array of vibrant, seasonal produce—and, of course, year-round staples like kale and avocado. Peeking inside co-founder Nic Jammet’s fridge is a bit similar. But alongside the best of what LA’s farmers’ markets have to offer, you’ll find some more unexpected ingredients, too. (When you eat a salad for dinner most nights—even one that’s as delish as Sweetgreen—it’s only natural that you’d want to get extra creative in the kitchen when you have the chance.)

As it turns out, Jammet’s a pretty big Japanophile who’s big into gut health and fermented everything. (Wait ’til you see the rice bowl he whipped up.) From kabocha squash to kumquats and pickled plums, find out how he uses unusual ingredients to keep his home-cooking game as fresh as possible.

That is some good looking lettuce. Is that your go-to green?

When I eat at Sweetgreen, I usually do romaine or kale. But whenever I’m at the farmers’ market and see little gem lettuce, I just can’t not buy it. It’s probably my favorite. I took this photo on the weekend, and I typically go to the farmers’ market on Friday or Saturday. Aside from that, my fridge looks pretty empty because I usually just eat Sweetgreen for dinner—and I’m not just saying that!

You must have some pretty good tricks for avoiding salad fatigue.

Yeah, I’ve been eating salad every day for about 10 years. I don’t meal prep for the week or anything. Usually, I’ll just go to the farmers’ market and buy what looks good, without knowing exactly what I’m going to do with it. To me, the best part is just going, seeing what’s in season, and using that as a starting point. I also like to buy things I’ve never cooked with before to try it out.

What is on the top shelf on the right, next to the kombucha?

Those are some cornichons, which are pickled cucumbers, and Sqirl jam, which I always have in my fridge because I go there, like, once a week. In those little containers are some cut-up pickled vegetables, which I got from a local Japanese market. They’re pickled radishes and cucumbers, which I throw into breakfasts, rice bowls, or salads.

And yeah, then there’s the kombucha. To me, Health-Ade is the best tasting one. I always have some of that in my fridge to drink in the morning.

3/4

What’s next to the lettuce in those silver packages?

Those are some rice balls from the Japanese market, and on the shelf below next to the oranges is some seaweed from the market. I guess I’m what you would call a Japanophile. I’ve been to Japan a few times over the past few years and I’ve always been inspired by the food and the culture. So I go to the Japanese market close to my apartment about once a week and geek out on all the Japanese food.

That kabocha squash really jumps out, too.

That went into a green curry I made. I cut it into cubes and roasted it that way. And next to the squash is a probiotic drink I like and then some cottage cheese. It’s actually really hard to find cottage cheese that doesn’t have a lot of stabilizers and junk in it, but this brand Good Culture is pretty clean. As a kid, I ate a lot of cottage cheese and then I didn’t eat it for, like, 15 years. And now I’m back on the cottage cheese train.

There’s a lot of fresh produce in here on the lower shelves.

Yeah, next to the seaweed on the third shelf are some kumquats, which are just nice to snack on, and then behind that is umeboshi, which are Japanese pickled plums. They’re really sour and good for your stomach. I either eat them as-is or put them in the inside of a rice ball.

4/4

It looks like there are some more Japanese ingredients stashed in your fridge door.

Yeah, there’s some ponzu, which is a citrus-based sauce, and some sake. The one thing I always have in my fridge, which I had just finished before taking this picture, is really good French butter. But I have some ghee in there, which I use similarly to butter, with roasted vegetables.

Tahini is another one of those things that I just always have in my fridge. That jar of mayonnaise is new, but usually I’ve been eating Fabanaise, which is vegan mayo made from chickpea water.

And next to the sake and whiskey on the top shelf, it looks like there’s a good bottle of wine.

Yes, that is wine. Normally I have a bottle of champagne in my fridge [for] whenever we need to celebrate, but I actually just drank it on Friday, the night before I took this photo.

What were you celebrating?

We just had our big company retreat this week and it was an incredible week. So I came back Friday and opened a bottle of champagne!